1 killed after car plows into protesters in Charlottesville — live updates

One person was killed and several others were injured Saturday when a car plowed into a group of protesters in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, hours after police broke up violent confrontations before a rally of white nationalists.

“I am heartbroken that a life has been lost here. I urge all people of good will — go home,” Mayor Mike Singer said on Twitter.

At least a half-dozen others were also wounded, suffering minor to life-threatening injuries, authorities said Saturday.

A dozen medics were seen carting the injured back and forth on stretchers. The victims appeared to be counter-protesters but could be residents, CBS News justice reporter Paula Reid reports.

A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017.

Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress via AP

Video from the scene showed a grey sedan plowing into protesters marching through the downtown shopping district as bystanders screamed for help.

Footage from another angle showed the car speeding in reverse to flee the scene.

White nationalists clashed with counter-protesters hours before the collision in downtown Charlottesville. Alt-right activists and white supremacists planned to protest the city’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the city’s Emancipation Park.

Rescue workers tend to many people who were injured when a car plowed through a crowd of counter-demonstrators marching in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty

President Trump condemned the violence in a news conference Saturday afternoon.

“We’re closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides,” he said.

Mr. Trump said he spoke with Gov. McAuliffe over the phone and agreed “that the hate and division must stop and it must stop right now.”

He added, “What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order, and the protection of innocent lives.”

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency in the city Saturday to aid the state’s response to the violence.

The City of Charlottesville also declared the assembly unlawful and officers in riot gear began to clear the area shortly after noon.

“It is now clear that public safety cannot be safeguarded without additional powers, and that the mostly out-of-state protesters have come to Virginia to endanger our citizens and property,” McAuliffe said in a statement.

“I am disgusted by the hatred, bigotry and violence these protesters have brought to our state over the past 24 hours,” McAuliffe said, adding that state troopers and the Virginia National Guard were providing support to local authorities.

Jason Kessler, the organizer behind the “Unite the Right” rally, told Erickson he plans to sue the city for violating a court order permitting the rally to be held in the park.

“Our First Amendment rights were violated today,” Kessler said by phone. He said the city of Charlottesville and McAuliffe violated the court ruling because they “didn’t like the outcome.”

Some protesters who came for the “Unite the Right” rally were armed and dressed in military-like clothing, while others wore shirts with Nazi symbols and quotes from Adolf Hitler. Another read “diversity is just a genocidal scam.”

Saturday’s confrontation came after a large group of torch-bearing white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia (UVA) campus Friday night, after a judge issued a ruling allowing Saturday’s protest to move forward.

UVA cancelled all scheduled events planned for Saturday citing “ongoing public safety concerns,” but announced that the college’s medical center would remain open.

“The University is monitoring the developments in Charlottesville and continues to coordinate with state and local law enforcement,” the school said in a statement.